I wonder if you created a poll with the same questions here, and people answered based on their sites how the information would differ? I spent less than $1000 on both my logo and website together and am pretty happy with the start I have. I did do a fair bit of research and content design/editing myself, but that price also includes writing the HTML. Guess it helps to have family learning the web, and very reasonable prices in a rural area...

I found a local lady on CL that did website design/set up, a few yrs ago & she charged me $100. Came out to see me in person, took photos, gave her a copy of my logo, set up my GoDaddy acct etc. All for $100 bucks. Of course its just one page, but it went smoothly.

I clicked the wrong renewal thingy at go daddy a yr ago & my website got taken down. Called her, she fixed it at no charge even though I offered to pay.

PaperCutter, Headzz77, and TonyGreek, do you guys find the prices in this article to be relatively accurate to your experience? My first comment was really to try to start a little more discussion on it, I know you get what you pay for, but I also know it can vary widely by area, as I mentioned I'm in a rural area and could have a full blown 5-10 page site with SEO done for less than the $1000 I mentioned above, do you find there are significant jumps in price by area or just by level of work done?

I posted it because so many of us wonder what we should expect to pay. Even the survey shows a great disparity. So, yeah, I would think that your market makes a difference. But, for an artistic website that makes you look good and looks good to search engines you should expect to pay.Posted via Mobile Device

I mentioned I'm in a rural area and could have a full blown 5-10 page site with SEO done for less than the $1000 I mentioned above, do you find there are significant jumps in price by area or just by level of work done?

I find that "with SEO done" means different things to different developers and clients, and usually not for the better. Regardless of rural or not, less than $1,000 for a solidly performing site, both the site itself, and the on and off-site SEO, is probably difficult to find. A good, solid rural developer should have clients outside of their rural area, so the costs should be commensurate with the experience and output, and not because they live in a small town. If they're that low priced, it's usually more indicative of their skills, drive, and client-base. A small-town client base might mean you can only sell a $750 site to the local law office, because the work level is different due to the competitive space for ranking that site. To do the same for, say where I live, would be $10k and rise sharply from there. For this, it's the off-site work that adds the sharp increase as, quite frankly, the core web sites themselves could be pretty the same.

I will say that, in all my years here, I can't really recall any site reviews where the poster was assured that their project included SEO and it actually was remotely up to snuff. Same goes for lowball web sites. As Headz points out, you get what you pay for. The problem often being that "you get what you pay for" can also still mean you're getting ripped off. We just saw another incident of that in the review requests. $1800 for a site that, with one glance I knew was a mass-market template, and another 5 second look at the developer's "portfolio", and I knew the story wouldn't jive with what the member probably thought he was paying for.

It's sad, but before going with a developer, you really should do as much vetting as possible. I get PMs all the time asking me to look at a developer's work, and it's extremely rare to find one I would recommend hiring. You just can't pay lowball prices for what's shaping up to be a local business' primary marketing and lead vehicle. It's the irony of ironies, as it pertains to a large majority of Lawnsiters.

(A bit off topic, but pertaining to your example, my main warning for people going with a local is to make sure that they're not working for your competition. I say it often, but Search Rank is a sport that can't have the same coach for both teams. Headz, PaperCutter, and inzane will tell you that it really gets the competitive juices flowing.)

I live in a rural area. We're approx 1 hr from Charlottesville, 1.2-1.5 hrs from "northern VA" and 1.5-2 hrs from DC. I've honestly found vendors NOT in my podunk town to be a better value (ie, $260 to letter my work car just outside DC vs. $600 here).

I think that with a website, <$500 - good luck with what you get.

$500-1000 - if you find a sharp rookie building a portfolio, you could get lucky. Maybe.

$1000-2000 - I think this is what is reasonable entry point to expect to pay for a decently made site. Accept it.

$2k+ - It's my opinion that at this point you should be getting something pretty awesome, whether it's a graphic design rockstar giving you a jaw-droppingly visual site, or deeper functionality, or something.

Quality costs. It's what we sell our customers every day, I don't know why anyone would think a $50 logo and a $100 website are remotely reasonable to expect.

I live in a rural area. We're approx 1 hr from Charlottesville, 1.2-1.5 hrs from "northern VA" and 1.5-2 hrs from DC. I've honestly found vendors NOT in my podunk town to be a better value (ie, $260 to letter my work car just outside DC vs. $600 here).

I think that with a website, <$500 - good luck with what you get.

$500-1000 - if you find a sharp rookie building a portfolio, you could get lucky. Maybe.

$1000-2000 - I think this is what is reasonable entry point to expect to pay for a decently made site. Accept it.

$2k+ - It's my opinion that at this point you should be getting something pretty awesome, whether it's a graphic design rockstar giving you a jaw-droppingly visual site, or deeper functionality, or something.

Quality costs. It's what we sell our customers every day, I don't know why anyone would think a $50 logo and a $100 website are remotely reasonable to expect.

Are the Waltons still over there? I do my own site. cost me $10 per month. Theses days it's so easy to do yourself and have a nice site too for cheap. Unless you just don't want or have the time to do yourself then you will end up paying up to $1000 for a lawn website. I wouldn't pay more than that for a lawn service website unless your a really high end business model like design build etc.. .